


Future

by Sour_Idealist



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Episode 11: Zemnian Nights, Episode Tag, F/M, Ficlet, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2019-04-27 21:36:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14434572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sour_Idealist/pseuds/Sour_Idealist
Summary: "Come to bed."Nott and Caleb talk, a bit, after Nott's run-in with Fjord and Molly.





	Future

**Author's Note:**

> This was a warm-up ficlet written immediately after the end of Episode 11, and the first thing I wrote when I opened prompts on Tumblr. I thought they were all going to be about this length. They were not.
> 
> Warning for Nott's self-loathing / (non-gender-based) body dysphoria.

“Do you trust Fjord and Molly?”

“No.”

“Me neither.”

Caleb looks across the room at her and sets the cord of the alarm spell down. “Come to bed,” he says again, pulling back the covers, and beckons to her, opening his arms. Nott goes, burying her face in the curve of his throat. Her lips brush his pulse point; she can feel his heartbeat there, steady and thrumming. Alive. Alive, and with her.

“Nott,” he murmurs, running his hand down her back. “Are you all right?”

She's not. She's not all right. She said too much, far too much – she hasn't even told Caleb what she wants yet, never mind anyone else. She hasn't even told him how badly she needs him. She doesn't have the words for it; and besides –

“I'm fine,” she says, and kisses him, careful and slow. This is just a little comfort for each other, that's all; it doesn't mean he wants to stay with her forever. Doesn't mean she wouldn't scare him away, if she told him everything. _I can't go back to being without you; you're the only thing that makes me feel safe; you feel like home_ – no. It's too much to ask.

“All right,” he says against her mouth, and rubs his thumb along the underside of her ear. She's sensitive there, the way he has sensitive places just under his jaw and on the inside of his wrist; Nott purrs a little. It's a deeply inhuman sound, but he's never seemed to mind.

“That feels nice,” she says, even though he knows. Caleb smiles and kisses her again, and Nott closes her eyes and lets herself pretend she deserves it.

Someday. Someday she'll be human; someday she won't have to mind her teeth when she does this, will be able to dig her fingers into his shoulders without worrying about her claws. She'll be soft and harmless and pretty – or plain! even just plain would be enough – and she can kiss Caleb good morning over breakfast in the sunlit tavern room, and nobody will stare. Someday it will be easy.

For now, she twines her clawed, three-fingered hands into his hair, and does her best.

 


End file.
